Photo: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2012
The port of Vancouver (Port Metro Vancouver) is an important cruise shipping turn port for the seasonal Alaskan cruises (June to September) and handled about 805,000 passengers in 2015. The main cruise port is located at the Canada Place facility, which is at the core of the city and can accommodate 3 ships concomitantly. This multi-purpose facility includes a major hotel and a convention center, implying that the pier has other revenue-generating uses outside the cruise season. The city is serviced by a major and well-connected airport and also has substantial touristic amenities.
In the above photo, the Princess Cruises (belonging to Carnival Cruises) ship Sapphire Princess, which can carry about 2,600 passengers, is being serviced for an Alaskan cruise. Cruise lines have a quick rotation of their ships, implying that the above ship completed a cruise in the morning and will depart in the evening of the same day, usually for a 7 days cruise. Two tender barges are servicing the ship. The largest is a bunker fuel barge for refueling while the smaller one is a waste barge carrying recyclable and non-recyclable garbage.